Stocks close lower on Thursday
The three major averages suffered losses on Thursday.
The S&P 500 fell 1.74% to end at 6,477.16, while the Nasdaq Composite declined 2.38% to 21,408.08. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 469.38 points, or 1.01%, to 45,960.11.
— Sean Conlon
Clear Secure climbs 20% in two weeks as airport TSA lines grow
Clear Secure is rising more than 20% in two weeks as Transportation Security Administration lines at airports grow.
Passengers have downloaded the Clear app 289,000 times since the beginning of March, when a partial government shutdown started to lengthen security lines at major airports, more than triple the number from a year ago, data from the market- intelligence firm Sensor Tower shows.
DA Davidson on Thursday reiterated a buy recommendation and raised its 12-month target on Clear Secure to $65 from $54, citing strong Q4 results, 2026 guidance and benefits stemming a partnership with American Express. The government security “shutdown has given Clear an opportunity to hit the ground running by signing up new members during a year when U.S. air travel is already expected to be elevated as a result of the World Cup,” Davidson analysts said.
Clear Secure soars 51% in 3 months
— Tom Rotunno and Scott Schnipper
More downside risk ahead, says Fairlead Strategies’ Stockton
While the major indexes remain positive on the week, above Friday’s lows, Fairlead Strategies founder Katie Stockton said the rebound may not last.
In a Thursday appearance on CNBC’s “Money Movers,” Stockton said momentum in the market remains to the downside. “While there is a short-term oversold condition and that’s helped allow for some firmness this week, we don’t have any indications of intermediate-term downside exhaustion yet,” she said.
Stockton said the next support level for the S&P 500 is around 6,175, which would take the index back to levels it hasn’t traded at since July. That’s roughly 5% lower from where the index was trading in the afternoon Thursday, though she believes the market could tumble there if sentiment around semiconductors breaks down.
“If we see the likes of, say, Micron, break support, and then SMH, the ETF representing semis, break support, I think that could be the driver of the next leg lower,” she said.
— Davis Giangiulio
The Nasdaq 100 heads for its worst day since November
The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 was off 2.2% in afternoon trading Thursday. The decline put the index on track for its worst session since Nov. 20, 2025.
Meta Platforms, a constituent in the index, was last down 7.7%. The Facebook parent was hit with two major losses in court involving child safety. Though the company is on the hook for damages, investors are likely more concerned about the far-reaching implications of the rulings: what they mean for Big Tech companies and the future of free speech on social media platforms.
The Nasdaq 100 in the past day
UBS downgrades two stocks on war-induced commodity disruptions
As the U.S.-Iran war upends the supply chains of key commodities, UBS on Wednesday downgraded two companies as investors search for winners and losers amid the violence.
The bank downgraded phosphate producer Mosaic to neutral from buy, cutting its price target to $27, indicating just 3% upside from Wednesday’s close. Analyst Lucas Beaumont wrote in a note that rising sulfur and ammonia input costs due to the conflict in the Middle East will harm profitability, even as phosphate prices are rising.
Meanwhile, UBS downgraded Nutrien to sell from neutral, while slightly raising its price target to $67, which implies a 12.5% downside from Wednesday’s close. The downgrade of the fertilizer company comes as prices for the commodity are surging due to the war. But, Beaumont wrote that the stock’s run of 25% in 2026 and 46% in the past year mean that the upside from a constrained supply environment to Nutrien is already priced in.
Mosaic shares were off more than 4% in afternoon trading, while Nutrien’s were down more than 3%.
— Davis Giangiulio
JPMorgan downgrades Scotts Miracle-Gro on Iran war headwind
Bags of Miracle-Gro Organic Choice soil and compost are displayed at a Costco Wholesale store on April 25, 2025 in San Diego, California.
Kevin Carter | Getty Images
The Iran war is weighing on Scotts Miracle-Gro, said JPMorgan, which downgraded the stock to neutral from overweight on Thursday.
The firm expects the prices of urea, diesel and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) to likely be higher next year due to the consequences of the conflict. The items all pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
“We think that Scotts’ raw materials will be about $45-$50m higher on average in 2027 than in F2026,” analyst Jeffrey Zekauskas wrote in a note to clients. “These are not especially large numbers as a base case for a company that reported $440m in adjusted operating profit in F2025 and $3.4b in sales, but they are a headwind.”
Shares of Scotts Miracle-Gro are down more than 11% since the start of the war.
— Michelle Fox
United Natural Foods gets an upgrade from Wells Fargo
As consumers become increasingly focused on wellness, natural and organic food distributor United Natural Foods is set to be a winner, according to Wells Fargo.
The bank upgraded its rating on the stock to overweight from equal weight, and moved its price target to $56, which implies a more than 28% gain from Wednesday’s close. That bullishness from analyst Edward Kelly comes from rising GLP-1 usage and the possibility of its biggest customers Amazon, via Whole Foods Market, taking increasing share.
“UNFI is making steady progress against its turnaround plans, management credibility is building, and the company’s exposure to natural/organic make it a great way to play the healthy living trend,” Kelly wrote.
Shares were up more than 4% in afternoon trading.
UNFI year-to-date chart.
— Davis Giangiulio
Dell Technologies is “epitome” of tech stocks that offer hedge against AI disruption, Josh Brown says
Investors looking to hedge against the risk of disruption by artificial intelligence should snap up shares of a familiar hardware and software name: Dell Technologies, according to Ritholtz Wealth Management CEO Josh Brown.
The executive said Thursday on CNBC’s “Halftime Report” that Dell is the “epitome” of a heavy assets, low obsolescence stock, or a name that isn’t susceptible to becoming a casualty of growing AI adoption. That makes it a good addition to one’s portfolio, Brown added.
“I don’t care what you do on an LLM. You can’t make a server, you can’t build a data center,” Brown said. “Dell can literally build a data center. It’s undisrupted by AI. It’s obviously benefiting from the AI capex boom. And absolutely, this is a very different stock than when we’re talking about or we’re talking about Microsoft.”
— Liz Napolitano
Micron Technology heads for sixth straight decline, off 22% since record last week
Micron Technology is sliding for a sixth day and has fallen 22% since Wednesday March 18, when it closed at an all-time high and then reported fiscal second-quarter results that far surpassed analyst estimates. Micron also forecast fiscal 2026 capital spending far in excess of what the Street was expecting.
Micron and other memory chip makers have also suffered from Alphabet’s introduction Wednesday of the TurboQuant AI compression algorithm. Sandisk, for example, is falling for a fifth day — after closing at a record on Thursday March 19 — and is down 20% during that span.
BTIG analysts Thursday said Micron hadn’t fallen 20% across six days after reaching a 52-week high since 1999. “When good news gets sold, pay attention,” the investment bank said. In 1999, Micron went on to retreat another 19%. When Micron similarly dropped 20% in 1997 after a new high, the stock went on to plunge another 52%, according to BTIG.
Micron Technology in 2026
— Tom Rotunno and Scott Schnipper
15 stocks in the S&P 500 trade at new 52-week highs
On Thursday, 15 stocks in the S&P 500 traded at new 52-week highs.
Names that hit this milestone included:
- Ross Stores trading at all-time high levels since its IPO in August 1985
- Coterra Energy trading at levels not seen since June 2022
- Diamondback Energy trading at levels not seen since August 2024
- Phillips 66 trading at all-time high levels back to its IPO in July 2013
- Akamai Technologies trading at levels not seen since February 2024
- Dell Technologies trading at all-time highs back to its relisting in December 2018
- Corteva trading at all-time highs back to its spin-off from DowDuPont in May 2019
- Dow Inc trading at levels not seen since January 2025
The four stocks in the index that reached new 52-week lows were:
- DoorDash trading at lows not seen since October 2024
- Lululemon trading at lows not seen since March 2020
- Cintas trading at lows not seen since July 2024
- Gen Digital trading at lows not seen since February 2024
— Lisa Kailai Han and Christopher Hayes
Meta, Best Buy and Brown-Forman among the stocks moving in midday trading
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Meta is seen at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 11, 2025.
Gonzalo Fuentes | Reuters
Here are some of the names moving in midday trading:
- Meta Platforms — The social media giant tumbled more than 6%. Meta lost two major legal cases concerning child safety this week. While the financial penalties aren’t large relative to the company’s size, Meta’s losses in court raise questions around Big Tech’s role in social media safety and free speech protections on these platforms.
- Brown-Forman — Shares of the Jack Daniels owner rose more than 14% after Bloomberg reported that French spirits company Pernod Ricard is considering a bid for Brown-Forman.
- Best Buy — The electronics retailer’s stock popped 4% without any specific news driving it. Gordon Haskett analysts told clients there has been speculation that GameStop might consider buying Best Buy. GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen has signaled he’d like to make an acquisition, and the company disclosed in its 10-k filing that it has set aside $700 million in collateral tied to an unspecified derivative position. Gordon Haskett said GameStop may have built exposure to a target via swaps.
To see more midday movers, read the full story here.
— Christina Cheddar Berk
Nasdaq falls into correction territory again
The Nasdaq Composite briefly slid into correction territory in midday trading on Thursday.
The index was off more than 10% from its 52-week intraday high that it hit on Oct. 29. On Friday, the tech-heavy index also briefly fell into correction territory, before recovering for the close of trading.
Compared to its closing high on the same day in October, the index was off 9.8%.
.IXIC since Oct. 29, 2025 chart.
— Davis Giangiulio
Oil and stock market reaction to Iran war not as severe as expected, Trump says
A pump jack is seen at sunset on March 16, 2026 in Midland, Texas.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images News | Getty Images
President Donald Trump said Thursday that neither the spike in oil prices nor the slump in the stock market during the Iran war were as bad he had anticipated.
In a Cabinet meeting, Trump expressed confidence in the war effort and said the economic damage will reverse.
Addressing Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the president said oil prices “have not gone up as much as I thought, Scott, to be honest with you. It’s all going to come back down to where it was and probably lower.”
Markets have whipsawed on geopolitical signals, turning on any signs of progress or intensity of the war. Read more.
— Jeff Cox
Jefferies intiates coverage of Robinhood at a buy rating
Jefferies has initiated coverage of brokerage stock Robinhood with a buy rating and $88 price target, implying upside of about 21% from here.
“HOOD is levered to rising global retail participation and its rapidly evolving product set is driving increased revenue diversity and client retention,” the firm said in a note Thursday. “HOOD’s unique ability to attract the next-gen investor positions it as one of the primary beneficiaries of the ongoing ~$100T generational wealth transfer. At 26x our 2027 EPS estimate, we view this as an attractive entry point.”
The stock was lower by more than 1% in morning trading, following a 5% pop in Wednesday’s session after Robinhood authorized a $1.5 billion stock buyback plan.
— Tanaya Macheel
U.S. inflation will be at 4.2% this year, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development forecasts
Lucio Rosario, 75, walks across the street from a Chevron Station where regular gas is being sold for $8.29 a gallon at the edge of Chinatown along Alameda Street in on Wednesday, March 25, 2026 in Los Angeles, CA.
Genaro Molina | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images
The Iran war and its impact on the global energy market will keep headline U.S. inflation this year well above the Federal Reserve’s projections, possibly necessitating policy action, according to a key global policy group.
In its periodic update of economic conditions, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development forecast all-items inflation in the U.S. to be at 4.2% for 2026.
The forecast is a sharp step up from the prior projection of 2.8%. Moreover, it is much higher than the 2.7% Fed officials estimated when they updated their own forecasts last week.
Read more here.
— Jeff Cox
Stocks fall to start Thursday’s session
U.S. stocks pulled back on Thursday morning.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 233 points, or 0.5%. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite shed 0.8% and 1.2%, respectively.
— Sean Conlon
Jobless claims edge higher, continuing claims lowest since May 2024
“Now Hiring” signage during a job fair hosted by Statue City Cruises at Liberty Landing Marina in Jersey City, New Jersey, US, on Tuesday, March 17, 2026.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Initial unemployment claims rose as expected last week while a longer-term measure hit its lowest level in nearly two years, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
First-time filings for unemployment benefits totaled a seasonally adjusted 210,000 for the week ended March 21, up 5,000 from the prior week but in line with the Dow Jones consensus estimate.
Continuing claims, which run a week behind, declined by 32,000 to 1.82 million. That was the lowest level since May 25, 2024, and furthers a trend in which employers have been reluctant to cut staff even while hiring has remained anemic.
— Jeff Cox
Sandisk, Newmont among the stocks moving before the bell
Iran reportedly planning to charge ships for safe passage through Strait of Hormuz
Iran is preparing legislation that would impose tolls on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian state-aligned media.
Traffic in the waterway, a critical shipping route, has effectively come to a standstill since the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran began almost four weeks ago. Subsequent supply constraints, along with attacks on energy facilities and regional production shutdowns, have pushed oil prices into triple digits.
Revolutionary Guard-aligned news agency Fars said overnight that a lawmaker had told its reporter the plans to impose tolls were also a bid to officialize Iranian supervision over the Strait of Hormuz.
A draft had been prepared, but was not yet complete, Fars reported. It said lawmakers were planning to complete a draft bill by next week, so it would be ready to put to parliament. Read more.
— Chloe Taylor
As U.S. sends thousands more troops to Middle East, here’s what could come next
The U.S. is preparing to send thousands more troops to the Middle East, prompting speculation about a ground attack on Iran amid conflicting accounts of peace talks.
The Pentagon is reportedly preparing to send about 3,000 troops from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East, alongside two Marine Expeditionary Units, to assist military operations in Iran. CNBC has contacted the White House and is awaiting a response.
Military experts said that the number of additional troops being deployed to the region appears to be consistent with plans for discrete and time-limited operations — rather than a sustained ground campaign.
It puts two strategic Iranian islands in the spotlight and raises questions about a potential move to seize the Islamic Republic’s nuclear materials. Read more.
— Sam Meredith
Trump on Iran negotiations: ‘They better get serious soon’
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi (not pictured) in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 19, 2026.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
President Donald Trump early Thursday did not sound optimistic on ongoing negotiations with Iran to end the conflict.
“They better get serious soon, before it is too late, because once that happens, there is NO TURNING BACK, and it won’t be pretty!,” said Trump on Truth Social.
Oil prices were about 3% higher Thursday, weighing on stock futures as the conflict continued to drag on. The S&P 500 has rebounded this week on the hope that there’s a chance Iran and the U.S. could at least agree to a ceasefire.
— John Melloy
Crude prices rise in early trading
Crude prices rose on Thursday, putting pressure on equities. Brent futures jumped 3.8% to $106.07 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate climbed 3.5% to $93.45.
Crude prices 5-day chart
— Fred Imbert
Asia-Pacific markets close lower as Iran rules out direct U.S. talks despite reviewing proposal
Asia markets trade mixed as Iran rules out direct U.S. talks despite reviewing proposal
Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed on Thursday after Iran signaled it had no intention of holding direct talks with the United States, even as Tehran reviews an American proposal to end the war, according to the Islamic Republic’s foreign minister.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that an exchange of messages between the two countries through mediators “does not mean negotiations with the U.S.,” Reuters reported.
Earlier Wednesday, Iranian state media reported that the country would reject a U.S. ceasefire offer and had outlined its own conditions for ending the war.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was little changed.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 added 0.28%, while the Topix rose 0.43%. South Korea’s Kospi slid 1.55% and the small-cap Kosdaq added 0.18%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slid 0.52%, while the CSI 300 opened flat.
— Lee Ying Shan
Stocks making the biggest moves after the bell: Worthington Steel, Karman and more
Worthington Steel in Rome, NY on July 23, 2025.
M. Suhail | Istock Editorial | Getty Images
These are the stocks moving the most in extended hours trading:
- Worthington Steel — Shares plummeted nearly 15% after the steel processing company posted fiscal third-quarter adjusted earnings of 27 cents per share, marking a decline from the 35 cents per share earned in the year-ago period.
- MillerKnoll — The furniture stock plunged 18%. MillerKnoll posted fiscal third-quarter adjusted earnings of 43 cents on revenue of $926.6 million.
Read the full list of stocks moving here.
— Lisa Kailai Han
Nine of the 11 GICS sectors end Wednesday’s session higher
On Wednesday, nine of the 11 GICS sectors ended the session higher.
Gains were led by the materials sector, which added 1.97% during the session, and followed by consumer discretionary stocks, up 1.18% on the day.
On the other hand, energy and real estate were the day’s laggards. The sectors respectively fell 0.53% and 0.04%.
— Lisa Kailai Han
Stock futures open little changed
Stock futures opened near flat on Wednesday night.
Futures tied to all three major averages fell marginally below the flatline.
— Lisa Kailai Han
